Critical Review by Hamish Miles

SOURCE: Review of The Celestial Omnibus and Other Stories, in Dial, Vol. 76, 1924, pp. 452-56.

In the following excerpt, Miles comments that civility is the essential quality of Forster's writing.

Polite and distinguished is the solitude of Mr. Forster in the clatter of English letters. Within its security he stands alone, no giant prophet in a wilderness, not even a chef d'école, but urbanely, tranquilly, unmistakably unique. His solitary figure evokes (does it?) one of those discreetly elegant little houses lingering still on the outward fringes of London, modest country manors hardly a century ago, but encompassed now and for evermore by the hosts of, it is said, desirable villas. O and alas! All too obviously are those villas kept in touch with the conveniences of a metropolis by clanging tram-cars and scarlet buses, and, spiritually, by all the...